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Dialogue with my muse |
| I have been carrying on a dialogue for almost a year. During this time we have discussed the progress of my writing, editing, and publishing efforts. Join in to listen to our conversation about my daily writing life and add your comments if you think of anything Calliope and I miss. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: Thinking about good and bad news. CALLIOPE: How so? JOE: Yesterday I dropped off some clothes at the Francis Center in Rochester, a shelter for the homeless in great need of winter coats among other things. CALLIOPE: Somehow I feel there is more to the story. JOE: I thought on the way home about all the people who give their lives helping those less fortunate than themselves and seldom receiving any recognition. CALLIOPE: And? JOE: When I got home news stations pored over every related and unrelated detail of the Fort Hood shootings. CALLIOPE: How did the two events relate. JOE: I thought of Shakespeare's Mark Antony, "The evil men do lives after them while the good is oft interred with their bones." CALLIOPE: Well put. JOE: Thank Shakespeare, not me. I just wish there was more balance in what we attend to. It seems to me that more focus on evil just foments more evil. CALLIOPE: And you think rejoicing in good example might encourage more good deeds? JOE: I do. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. What's on your mind today? JOE: I was just thinking of something I observed yesterday. CALLIOPE: Tell me. JOE: It's a short story with a simple moral. CALLIOPE: Okay. JOE: I was walking down Clay Street in LeRoy yesterday to deliver some muffins Carol made for her brother when I came across an empty parked mail truck. CALLIOPE: Is that it? JOE: Hardly. I saw the mailman leaving one house and entering the neighboring yard. An unchained collie waited for him at the edge of its property. CALLIOPE: Collies can be very gentle but also fiercely protective. JOE: My thoughts precisely. CALLIOPE: And then? JOE: The collie met the mailman, fell in alongside him and walked with him as if the two were fast friends. The mailman deposited the mail and left several bits of kibble on the porch step. The collie ate the kibble and the mailman proceeded on his way. CALLIOPE: And the moral. JOE: When you have messages to deliver, make sure you have something the gatekeepers want if you wish to be well received. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How did your column on Michael Jackson turn out? JOE: Quite well thank you. You will see it in its Sliding Otter News form this weekend. CALLIOPE: What are you on to now? JOE: Back to work on my CD. CALLIOPE: How's it coming? JOE: Good. I identified quite a few selections related to my idea of spiritual wisdom. I have started recording them and hope to have the CD done by the end of the month. CALLIOPE: Doesn't sound like much time. JOE: It isn't but it's going well. I have the production process ready. Hopefully it will work quickly as well. CALLIOPE: Do you expect a good response? JOE: It's hard to tell. I talked with a couple gift store owners who tell me there is a good market for CD's, m0ore so than books lately. CALLIOPE: That's encouraging. JOE: It is especially since there are more outlets for CD's in my rural community than there are for books. CALLIOPE: Best of luck with your project. JOE: Thanks. I'll just need to stay focused. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Any further thoughts on Michael Jackson? JOE: My newsletter topic this week centers on trying to make sense of his life. CALLIOPE: How did you do that? JOE: I didn't exactly. Making sense of something is an intellectual task which his life defied. CALLIOPE: Tell me more. JOE: Thoughts of his creativity, childishness, and adolescent mentality swirled in my head and finally came together along with a couple quotes from his songs. CALLIOPE: Such as? JOE: "We are the world, we are the children. We are the ones who make a brighter day." from his song, We're the Children. CALLIOPE: It sounds like you see a parallel between creativity and adolescence. JOE: I do. Adolescence and creativity are both experiences in testing and expanding limits, ignoring boundaries and rules and venturing into new domains. CALLIOPE: Interesting parallel. What about the rest of his life? JOE: Creativity inclines its owner toward experimenting with personal life sometimes with0uut considering consequences. CALLIOPE: Not entirely a rational pursuit. JOE: That's the nature of creativity. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: Fine. I was contemplating Saturday's experience. CALLIOPE: Tell me more. JOE: Carol invited me to see "This Is It", the Michael Jackson movie. CALLIOPE: Please share the results of your contemplation. JOE: I had a vague interest in the movie while Carol was quite anxious to see it. CALLIOPE: And? JOE: We were equally enthralled. CALLIOPE: What captivated you? JOE: The degree of his creative energy, much beyond what I had imagined. CALLIOPE: Compared with whose? JOE: Anyone else on the popular music or entertaining circuit. CALLIOPE: What stood out the most? JOE: Watching him craft and fine tune each detail and seeing them performed. CALLIOPE: Sounds a bit mystical. JOE: It was. I was trying to see how his mind worked, but it remained a mystery. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Happy Saturday. How are you doing today? JOE: Pretty well. I finished editing selections for my CD yesterday. CALLIOPE: What CD? JOE: I decided to record an audio CD of some of my writing selections. CALLIOPE: What's the theme? JOE: My articles on topics related to Spiritual Wisdom. CALLIOPE: Sounds like an interesting area. Do you have a title for the CD yet? JOE: I might just call it Spiritual Wisdom but I'm not sure yet. CALLIOPE: How will you choose a title? JOE: I'm doing a little keyword research on related phrases. Perhaps one will emerge from the process. CALLIOPE: Any other avenues? JOE: I have mentioned the project to a few people. Perhaps one of them will have a good suggestion. CALLIOPE: You never know. JOE: I have been fortunate to have good suggestions for my work in the past. Talk with you on Monday. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: Good but a little weary. CALLIOPE: From what? JOE: Watching the world series two night in a row rather than getting to be early. I was still up at the crack of dawn or before. CALLIOPE: I didn't know you were a baseball fanatic. JOE: I'm not. I don't usually get interested until sometime during the world series. CALLIOPE: Anything especially fascinating to you? JOE: Yes. Commentaries discussed hitting and pitching streaks and slumps. I saw a parallel with writing. CALLIOPE: How so? JOE: I wanted to write over the past week but just couldn't seem to immerse myself in it. CALLIOPE: You have been writing. JOE: Yes but not with much enthusiasm as much as I tried to generate some. Suddenly my boiler fired up and I'm back at it with full energy. CALLIOPE: Another of life's mysteries? JOE: I suppose so. I'm just glad my writing energy is back. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: Thinking. CALLIOPE: About what? JOE: Yesterday I worked on search engine optimization (SEO), what it is all about and how to do it. CALLIOPE: And? JOE: As I was considering what to write this morning, the term "brain optimization" popped into my mind. CALLIOPE: What do you mean by it? JOE: How should I know. I've never heard these two words together before. CALLIOPE: Then speculate? JOE: Fair enough. I found a definition of SEO yesterday, "altering and improving the natural search listings that will be returned for various keywords and phrases." CALLIOPE: Sounds rather stodgy to me. How could it apply to brains? JOE: We could arrange our brains to respond to others by giving something important to them. CALLIOPE: Interesting. JOE: I think we often tell people what's important to us and forget about their needs. Something to work on. Talk with you tomorrow. |
JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: Wondering about suicide bombers. CALLIOPE: What brings them to mind? JOE: A program I happened on this morning on TV about the psychology of suicide bombers. CALLIOPE: What was the jist? JOE: Sometimes cells of people with similar thinking form bonds not necessarily at the behest of al Qaeda or other influence. CALLIOPE: How do they get to suicide bombing? JOE: They seem to form tight bonds beyond consideration of family or even strangers and depersonalize others. The group bond becomes the only thing in their life. CALLIOPE: How does the suicide part fit it? JOE: If they explained that, I missed it. The program stressed the importance of the group bond but did not address other motivation. CALLIOPE: Does it make sense to you? JOE: No. But then I'm not a suicide bomber. It's hard for me to even imagine. CALLIOPE: Perhaps it is too complex to understand. Once people explode themselves it's too late to explore their motivation. JOE: I agree. Another of life's mysteries at least for now. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: I went to bed last night mad at myself for not accomplishing much. CALLIOPE: How did that come about. JOE: First I woke up tired after going to bed late Sunday night. My store of energy was nowhere to be found. CALLIOPE: How did you spend the day? JOE: Watching television in the morning and doing yard work in the afternoon. CALLIOPE: Was it a total loss? JOE: I realized this morning that it wasn't. The exercise of course was good for me. On TV I watched classic movies and studied their approach and technique. I also looked at the many commercials from a marketing point of view. CALLIOPE: So you did accomplish something. JOE: I didn't produce anything but did recharge my creative batteries much as a field is rejuvenated by being allowed to lie fallow for a time. CALLIOPE: Is your field still fallow? JOE: Not this morning. I plan to get back to work exploring several projects on the coals. CALLIOPE: That's the spirit. JOE: Talk with you tomorrow. |
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Hope they like snow! 
I just tell them to go get a life...
It's a sunshiny 24 here at the moment; 19 in Buffalo.